A pinch of oddness makes the Monday go down easier.

Uncommonday, Road Trip!

09 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Bad Photography, Uncommonday

Tags

Alaska, Houston, Houston Alaska, Pie, Pond, Road Trip, Sculpture, Skeeter, Small Town

This summer, I drove all the way from Anchorage to Houston.

It took about an hour.

I missed the main residential district, but I did stop to enjoy an apple pie in a lovely restaurant by a beautiful pond. Anyway, this is my second Houston. I think I like it.

…or at least its pies and its ponds.

: Restaurant

: Good Pie!

: A close-up of the pond.

: Were it not for rain, I could have eaten by the pond.

: A monument to the state bird.

: I missed all of these events!

: Fire Dept

Uncommonday Morning News – Shaka May Have a Patent-Suit Against Sitting Bull

02 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in History, Native American Themes, Uncommonday

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

American Indians, Anheuser-Busch, Cassilly Adams, Custer's Last Fight, Custer's Last Stand, George Armstrong Custer, History, Little Big Horn, Native Americans, Sioux

(Click to embiggen)

This painting is one of the reasons Custer is still remembered as a hero in some quarters. To quote a fellow-blogger:

In 1884, eight years after George Armstrong Custer’s death, the Anheuser-Busch brewing company commissioned an original oil painting, Custer’s Last Fight, by Cassilly Adams. It was reproduced as a lithograph by F. Otto Becker in 1889 and distributed as an advertising poster by Anheuser-Busch. This depiction of the Battle Of the Little Bighorn undoubtedly hung in more saloons than any image before or since, and fixed the iconography of Custer’s last moments in the national imagination.

I am told the image represents the terrain at Little Big Horn reasonably well, though some question its depiction of the soldier’s uniforms, the lack of guns among the Sioux, and of course Custer’s heroic posture in those final moments is open to more than a little doubt. What makes this image a truly golden bit of absurdity, however, would have to be the Indian shields.

…just a little off.

hm…

hmmm again!

Ahem!

Uncommonday – The Sun Never sets on the Cricket Empire

25 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Anthropology, Uncommonday

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Anthropology, Cricket, Cultural Change, Cultural Diffusion, Culture, Maasai, Sports, Trobiand Islands

Just what ain’t Cricket? I really wouldn’t know the answer to that question, but I am occasionally quite amused to find out just what is cricket, or at least who has learned to play and how they play it. More than most of the big world sports, it seems that cricket lends itself to regional variation, and there are some really interesting variations out there. I’m not a very sporty guy, but I’m thinking Kilikiti Estonian style out on the lagoon for Piuraagiaqta.

Oh yes!

Kilikiti (Samoan Cricket).

This Masai team appears to play a pretty standard version of the game, but you wouldn’t know it from their uniforms.

And heading back out into the Pacific, we get Trobriand Cricket.

This is how they do it in Estonia.

Uncommonday – An Overly Honest Funeral Sermon

18 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Movies, Uncommonday

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Ambivalence, Death, Funeral, Humor, Irony, Schizopolis, sermon, Steven Soderbergh

Awhile back I posted a film clip featuring a wonderful wedding sermon. Today, I thought I’d post my favorite funeral sermon. This scene is from the movie Schizopolis, one of Soderbergh’s lesser known films. If you’re feeling a little left of your own mind, let me assure you the rest of the film is no closer to normal than this scene.

* By ‘Honest’ I might mean ‘cynical’ in which case I think we can dispense with the ‘Overly’ part of the title.

Unommonday – The Fightin’ Whities!

11 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Native American Themes, Uncommonday

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

American Indians, Basketball, Native Americans, Sports, Sports Mascots, The Fighting Whites, The Fighting Whities, University of Northern Colorado

Since sports mascots are on the public mind once again, I thought it might be a good time to post my all-time favorite team. Mind you, I don’t follow sports. When people talk about sports, to me it sounds a lot like the adults in a Peanuts cartoon. When a game is on the tube, I just see a blue screen. And I must say that I have never seen these guys play, nor do I know anything about their record. I just know the name of the mascot for an intramural basketball team at the University of Northern Colorado: It’s ‘The Fightin’ Whites’, or the ‘fightin’ whities’ as they were more popularly known. Their motto was “Every thang’s gonna be all white.” And just in case the ironic tone isn’t clear, let me point out that the school used sales of team merchandise to fund an excellent scholarship program for Native American Students.

Uncommonday: Great Show, but Who is the Drummer?

04 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music, Uncommonday

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Impromptu Performance, Pete Townsend, Quadraphenia, Rock&Roll, San Francisco, Scot Halpin, The who

“Can anybody play the drums? Can anybody play the drums? I mean somebody good.”

These aren’t the words one would expect to hear at a major rock concert, but that is exactly what Pete Townsend asked the crowd at The Cow Palace in San Francisco on November 20th, 1973.

It was the opening date for the start of the Quadraphenia tour, which is to say that this was one of the biggest bands out there at the peak of their popularity. Drummer Keith Moon had just passed out for the second time that evening, and apparently there was no reviving him. So, in what has to be one of the greatest rock&roll moments in all of history, Townsend turned to the audience and asked for a volunteer. What they got was Scot Halpin, a recent high school graduate who hadn’t played the drums in a year.

Halpin played three songs with The Who that night and closed the show.

(Short version, skips the songs)

(Full Concert)

Uncommonday Number 2: A Bit of Juxtaposition

28 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Museums, Native American Themes, Uncommonday

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Anchorage, Anchorage Museum, Art, Hopi, Juxtaposition, Native American, Nicholas Galanin, Photography, Star Wars

I seriously wonder what the folks out on the Hopi Mesas must have thought of Star Wars. I’ll leave the commentary at that, because I think the photo here speaks for itself. This piece was produced by the artist Nicolas Galanin. It was part of an exhibit at the Anchorage Museum.

Uncommonday Number 1: Heh-heh, …Toilet Humor!

21 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Uncommonday

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Alaska, Anchorage, Beavis, Beavis&Butthead, Cornholio, Humor, Monday, Odd, Toilet Humor

I am totally off my game here, so I’ve decided to try and jump start my blog with a new weekly feature. I’m calling these ‘Uncommondays’. I thought about calling them ‘Queered Quickies’, but that isn’t really my cultural capital. Angstie Mondays? Yeah, those I can relate to, and I’m guessing most of you can too. So, I thought it might be fun to throw a little curve-ball at the start of the work week.

Well, fun or not, I’m gonna!

…and I thought I would start this off with a picture I took in early September. Who would have thought I would have met this character in a bathroom in Alaska. Oh the bathroom part makes sense, but I didn’t expect to see him this far North. I mean, Anchorage is a long way from Lake Titicaca. I can only hope the poor guy found some Cappuccino!

…and perhaps a little TP.